Delany: "Conference bowl lineup to become more national"

Submitted by Medic on

Stewart Mandel offered an interesting article today:

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/college-football/news/20130110/college-football-bowl-system-changes/?sct=hp_t2_a6&eref=sihp

Delany is on the move again. I don't really disagree with it either. I definitely would not mind seeing a tie in with the Holiday bowl or some bowls in Arizona as I have no desire (see: lazy) to travel to Florida every year.

We already know bowl attendance was down but I thought it was interesting to see Michigan's game with South Carolina drew one of the largest ratings in ESPN network history for a non-BCS game.

 

WolvinLA2

January 11th, 2013 at 7:08 PM ^

YESSSS!!!! More national probably means California.  That's great news.  For the record, I would also love the Holiday Bowl.  Never a bad reason to go to San Diego, greatest city in the country.

WolvinLA2

January 11th, 2013 at 7:45 PM ^

Yes - those first three are all great reasons, but it does go beyond that.  I've been to SD as both a young single guy and as a parent with my toddler, and it's great for both.  There is both beachy nightlife and downtown nightlife not very far apart.  The gaslamp district has great bars and restaurants of all kinds, and Pacific Beach has a lot of the board shorts and flip flops types of hangouts.  Past that, Mission Bay park is great time too, great for kids, and close to Sea World, and La Jolla is one of my wife's favorite areas - good shopping and lots of restaurants with incredible views of the ocean and cove.  You can grab a beer while watching the seals.  

All of those things complement the weather and the ocean.  It's never too hot, but almost always warm and sunny,  everything is close to the ocean, and not too expensive (at least for California).  And yes, there are beautifil women everywhere.

MaizeAndBlueWahoo

January 11th, 2013 at 9:45 PM ^

Plus the train is actually reasonably priced and goes many of the places you'd want to.  (Not Coronado, though.)  I think I remember paying $5 for a day pass.  Old Town is neat, kind of a Mexican-themed Mackinac Island if you will.  With margaritas the size of a toilet bowl.  I would never want to live in San Diego being more of a cold-weather, change-of-the-seasons kind of guy, but I've visited four times, and done different stuff every time and never not enjoyed myself.

Maizenblueball

January 12th, 2013 at 12:01 PM ^

I currently live in San Diego, and I agree with everything that WolvinLA2 said.  I've lived all over the country, in many different states, and San Diego is incredible.  I've even lived in Santa Barbara for awhile, which is awesome too, and I've lived in Malibu, LA, etc.  All are great places, depending what you're into, but overall as far as big cities go, San Diego tops the list.

colin

January 11th, 2013 at 11:32 PM ^

Depends what you're interested in.  It's easy living for all the obvious reasons, but it lacks the breadth and depth of culture in big American cultural centers.  Their best high end restauranteurs, for instance, ditch the place for a more vibrant scene once they prove they can run a shop ably.  The same is true for music, comedy, etc.  It would be less of an issue if SD were farther away from the gravitational pull of LA. You really have to prefer the said obvious stuff to culture to want to pass up LA or SF for SD, hence the state of affairs.

Why this is not true of the beer I have no idea.  It is fantastic.  It's also probably a significant part of the reason why SD is starting to come into its own as a "real" city, culture-wise.

Also, yes, this is for a given definition of culture.  Pacific beach bros certainly have their own collective culture that they find very satisfying.  

Wolverine Devotee

January 11th, 2013 at 7:22 PM ^

Please please please do this-

 

B1G Champion- Rose Bowl
B1G #2/3-         Cotton Bowl
B1G #2/3/4-       Chick-fil-A Bowl
B1G #3/4-         Sun Bowl
B1G #5-             Pinstripe Bowl
B1G #6-             Car Care Bowl of Texas
B1G #7-             Potato Bowl
B1G #8-             Pizza Bowl
 
Cotton is the only major bowl game Michigan hasn't won or been to for that matter. Chick-fil-A has a nice history (Peach Bowl). The Sun Bowl is in beautiful El Paso with the mountains overlooking the stadium. Pinstripe because it's YANKEE STADIUM.
 
I feel the teams who finish 5-8 deserve locations with crappy weather. The better teams should get the better locations. 

mgowake

January 11th, 2013 at 10:07 PM ^

But, I like your enthusiasm! Would be nice to spread the B1G love around the country a little. Show us West Coast wolverines some love here and there too! How about a game in the new 49ers stadium? I'll swing by on my way home from work!

Alton

January 11th, 2013 at 10:28 PM ^

Just FYI, both the Cotton and the Chick-fil-A will almost certainly be part of the new BCS lineup starting in the 2014/15 season, so there is only one more year that either of them will have a conference tie-in of any kind.  They will then become "Access Bowls" and host BCS at large teams 8 of the next 12 years, hosting a semifinal the other 4 years.

Also, the Chick-fil-A is one of the only December bowls that doesn't want to upgrade their conference tie-ins right now; they are perfectly happy with the SEC and ACC.

 

mGrowOld

January 11th, 2013 at 7:28 PM ^

Wait a second.  You don't think Delany is doing this to secretly help the recruiting efforts of MSU do you?  A national bowl tie-in seems to be a perfect fit for their national recruiting efforts.

Damn it.  I KNEW dad liked little brother better.

Perkis-Size Me

January 11th, 2013 at 7:35 PM ^

keep the sec bowls. we need to beat these guys. i think the big ten performed above expectations this year in terms of its bowl games, especially against the sec. i bet most of the country expected south carolina to beat us handily, and for georgia to blow out nebraska.

xcrunner1617

January 11th, 2013 at 7:40 PM ^

How about not scheduling three bowls games that all have Big Ten teams in them at the same time? Maybe it is not more national, but should definitely help ratings.

Jmilan

January 11th, 2013 at 7:46 PM ^

Does anyone else think the problem with attendance is because there are no good bowl games in the northeast. If the BCS match ups are at least decent on paper, I think tickets would either sell out or the numbers would be at least better. Out west the sports following is no where near the same as the northeast so even if a game is a matched up well if their team isn't in the game they most likely aren't going. I understand that you want to have vacation destinations as bowl hosts, but people can't afford to travel to California every year. If south teams are going to complain about cold weather then make all the northeast bowl games in domes. There are plenty of quality dome stadiums that could be available. I could care less about vacation spots the ultimate goal is for them to sell tickets.

WolvinLA2

January 11th, 2013 at 7:56 PM ^

A California bowl would do very well with a Big Ten team, because there are tons of Big Ten alumni out here who don't want to travel three time zones to see their team play.  If the Big Ten picked up the Holiday Bowl, I promise the game would be sold out every year for at least a decade, unless it was the same teams going all the time.  

And it terms of travelling to California - it's not much more expensive than travelling to Florida for most, and San Diego is a much more exciting destination than anywhere in Florida not named Miami.   

Jmilan

January 11th, 2013 at 11:48 PM ^

I am not meaning to gripe about the California games so much I just hate how every big bowl game minus the rose bowl is usually played in SEC country. I know that a UM game in California is good because it usually means Rose Bowl and UM fan base doesn't have these ticket issues usually. I guess my thinking is just people are die hard sports fans on this side of the country and I would be willing to contemplate going to a BCS game if it was in Indianapolis or somewhere similar even if UM wasn't in it. I should have better worded that the California games don't really bug me as much, but the Florida games are just annoying to me at this point.

LSAClassOf2000

January 11th, 2013 at 8:03 PM ^

"According to one source, the conference collaboration Delany speaks of may consist of a format like this: Over a six-year cycle, the Big Ten and Big 12 might share spots in the Holiday (San Diego) and Kraft Fight Hunger (San Francisco) bowls, with each league playing three seasons in both."

Something like this would be nice for a conference like the Big Ten that, while in the Midwest, had a sizeable West Coast alumni / alumnae base and fan following and probably would therefore increase attendance. Right now, I believe that the Big Ten's tie-ins include three bowls played in Florida and two in Texas, among others, and there's no reason that they couldn't agree to at least one closer to larger pockets of fans, I would think. Going to where the demand likely is would help to mitigate the issues with eating the costs associated with ticket guarantees too, if they place these games within easy reach of more likely audiences. The distribution of the games is one thing I never understood in comparison to where many schools have large concentrations of alums and fans.